Rabinavicius, Prewar Lithuanian Diplomat, Dies at 70; Was U.S. Citizen

September 4, 1962

NEW YORK (Sep. 3)

Henrikas Rabinavicius, prewar Lithuanian Consul General in New York, died this weekend at his home in Weston, Conn., at the age of 70. Described as the only Jew to have served in the Lithuanian diplomatic service, he resigned his post here in 1927 after Lithuanian Premier Augustinas Waldemaras stated that he wanted his country’s New York representative to be “a Lithuanian, not a Jew.”

Mr. Rabinavicius, who refused to consider the incident as a general indication of “systematic anti-Semitism” by the Lithuanian Government, later returned to his country’s diplomatic service as Charge d’Affaires in Moscow and London, during the 1930’s. After the Soviet Union took over his country, he emigrated to the United States, serving as a consultant to the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He became an American citizen.